FRANK M. CHAPMAN. i8i 



THE ORNITHOLOGY OF COLUMBUS' FIRST 

 VOYAGE.* 



BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



One would suppose that the records left by Columbus of 

 his voyage had been so closely studied by recent commen- 

 tators, that just attention had been given to every circum- 

 stance which could in the least have governed the course of 

 the discoverer. Volume after volume, essay upon essay, 

 has been written, treating minutely of apparently every in- 

 fluence which could have affected Columbus' land-fall, but 

 with one exception I do not find that historians have rightly 

 estimated the part which birds played in the discovery of 

 the New World. I think, however, it can be proved that 

 from November 6th, when the Canaries disappeared in the 

 east, until October 12th, when the Bahamas were sighted, 

 by far the most important events which occurred to the 

 little fleet were the visits it received from land-birds. 



Columbus was not a naturalist ; his mission was to dis- 

 cover not new species, but new worlds. As a rule, his 

 journals are devoid of natural history incidents, but during 

 this first voyage he was fully alive to the significance of the 

 appearance of migratory birds ; indeed, his journal furnishes 

 us to-day with the best records we have of the occurrence 

 of land-birds in the waters through which he passed. The 

 finding of sea-weed or the sight of a whale was, at the best, 

 only negative evidence of the proximity of land ; but the 



* First published in Our Animal Friends, Oct., 1895, PP- 3^' 32> 



